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BoD member works quietly ‘backstage’ since beginning
   Known to anyone who has ever met her as the woman “behind the scenes,” this member of the CPRF Board of Directors has quietly helped nurture the CPRF mission into what it is today.  Joyce Smith, CPRF Board assistant secretary and CPRF executive administrative assistant, moved to Wichita in 1961.
   Since then she has been a champion of the CPRF vision to provide people with disabilities opportunities for employment, housing and other necessary supports – first with United Cerebral Palsy of Kansas, then by joining other visionaries who founded CPRF in 1972.
   “It wasn’t easy.  CPRF didn’t just spring into being – it was a lot of hard work,” said Smith.  “We came from very modest beginnings and CPRF can only continue to get better.”
   The mother of three children, Smith moved with her husband, Odell, from Texas to secure services for her youngest, Joy, who was then six years old.
   “Joy was the only child with a disability in our small community.  After visiting the Institute of Logopedics, (now known as Heartsprings), I realized that Joy’s disabilities were so minor compared to others.  It changes your perspective.”
   During her first Wichita visit, Smith was offered a position with CPRF Founder John F. “Jack” Jonas Jr. who was then UCPK executive director.  Although the Smith family expected to be here for only a few years, long enough to benefit Joy, they quickly became involved with the community and here they stayed.
   “This is the greatest place in the world.  If you don’t need the services you wouldn’t understand,” Smith said.  “There’s no other place like CPRF.”
   When Smith and Jonas first began working together, she recalled, they had a single file cabinet and a cigar box for donations.  Together they managed six affiliate UCP organizations across Kansas and were responsible for the fundraising that helped support customers of the Institute of Logopedics: “Jack traveled everywhere and must have hit every little town in Kansas.”
   Jonas soon became a prominent figure in the Smith family and she has been at Jonas’ side until his retirement in 2002.
   During more than 40 years together, Smith has quietly worked behind the scenes throughout CPRF’s incredible history of “firsts.”  The first in the nation to propose legislation (and get it passed) to mandate that public education dollars be made available to children with disabilities through special education.  The first in the U.S. to open a manufacturing facility that employs people with disabilities at competitive wages, with full fringe benefits and retirement.  The first apartment U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Section 8 apartment complex in the U.S. that is fully accessible and specifically for people with disabilities.
   “Jack and the board are the ones that made all these things happen – they’re the ones who actually did it, but I was right along side and saw it all happen,” she said.
   Today Smith continues to serve CPRF but for the organization’s second president and CEO, Patrick Jonas, who took the reigns from his father in 2001.
   “Joyce is one of the most generous and selfless people I have ever met,” Jonas said.  “Day to day operations would be infinitely more challenging, if it were not for Joyce.  She has a wonderful way with people and is held in the highest regard from all staff and the board of directors.”
   “The development of CPRF was a gradual process and there were so many challenges and disappointments along the way,” Smith said.  “It has been a hard job, but this is the greatest organizations in the world – it has been a love of mine, not a job.”
   The creation of Center Industries Corporation in 1975 directly addressed Smith’s concerns for her daughter who was rapidly approaching adulthood at a time when opportunities for independence were severely limited.  After completing her education at Holy Family Center in May 1975, Joy went to work for Center Industries that August where she remains on the job today.
   “I so love CIC and what it represents to so many people,” Smith said.  “If it wasn’t for CIC, many of its employees wouldn’t have a job.”
   Smith’s priorities are clear: “God, my family and this job.  It’s been exciting,” she said.  Throughout the years, Smith has maintained a clear focus on employment, housing and more recently the development of the School of Adaptive Computer Training.
   The need for accessible housing was realized just a few short years later in 1979 with the opening of the nation’s first HUD apartment complex designed specifically for people with disabilities.
   “Housing is so important and I know that at first Jack wondered where we would find people to move in,” she recalls.  “I still remember when I told Pat Craft (one of the first residents) that he could move into the Timbers – he shouted and hollered so loud, you could hear him from blocks away.”
   Smith’s contributions to CPRF are a list a mile long, said Jack Jonas, “beginning with her unwavering loyalty.”
“She has always been very proud of the organization and would do anything to support it,” said Jack Jonas, CPRF’s founder and lifelong friend.  “Optimism is another one of her greatest strengths – she was always encouraging when we hit the bumpy roads.  She has a very special way with the board and is very well respected, very upbeat with a pleasant way of communicating with others.”
   Jack Jonas believes that Smith’s strengths are derived from her daughter.  “She probably understood the purpose of the mission better than the average person and has always recognized the importance of housing and employment.”
   True to her character of working behind the scenes, Smith has a reputation of lending a helping hand to families in need, whatever that need may be – a ride to a doctor’s appointment, shopping or simply helping a person find resources in the community.
   “In our business we come across people in need in many different ways,” said Jack Jonas.  “Joyce has always helped people, in a quiet way while going about her business.  She has a real way of identifying with our customers.  This is quite a remarkable attribute.”
   The organization’s cornerstone, Smith is wedded to CPRF both personally and professionally.  Today, just as in the past, she continues to make a difference at all levels by working quietly behind the scenes – which is where she admits she would rather be.
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